Sammendrag
The research project discusses the shift from trade secrets for keeping knowledge secluded, to trade secrets used for knowledge transfer in open innovation. There is a process of knowledge appropriation where trade secrets blend with other mechanisms for the management of innovation.
Trade secrets are secrets with commercial value that are delimited and managed. They are often used to control innovation and may concern technology, business strategy, customer data and any information of value to a business. In 2016 both the EU and the USA amended the legal framework for trade secrets. Norway introduced a new law in 2020. The legal changes concern how trade secrets better can be objects for licencing and knowledge-sharing, as parts of collaborations and open innovation.
Trade secrets need management from their creation to their end. However, the management needs are different from those for other, publishable intellectual property. This difference creates tension, as trade secrets are mixed with such other mechanism. When trade secrets are part of the knowledge flow in collaborations and open innovation, there is a need for managers to balance openness and secrecy. This PhD-project, with the thesis comprising five papers, research that balance in trade secret management.
The first three papers discuss openness and access to research results from university-industry collaborative projects. The studies build on the analysis of the contractual agreements in 484 research projects. The results comprise a framework that can help unravel the complicated contractual provisions and their interrelationships, including a proposition that lead time advantage could be framing for appropriation in collaborative research.
The fourth paper investigates how SMEs use trade secrets to create competitive advantages from knowledge exchange and open innovation. This paper builds on survey data from 3871 Norwegian SMEs with novel questions differentiating between establishing and using trade secrets. The paper proposes how to set a baseline for future studies on the effect of the new legislation.
The fifth and last paper concerns teaching and learning trade secret management. The threshold concepts framework is an educational lens well suited for teaching subjects that are transformative and troublesome, as trade secret management is.
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